The Mine: Material Archive of the Sloterplas

This scene is a material archive of a man-made lake, the Sloterplas. It studies the industrial legacy of the Sloterplas as a sand mine. Once natural, shallow waterbody, nowadays almost 40 meters deep mine. It was created through large-scale dredging of sand for creation of the AUP neighbourhoods (Amsterdam extension plan from the 50’s). The sand was used to heighten the low-laying peatlands that were here before.

The Mine presents the Sloterplas not as a picturesque lake but as a material archive, in which its materiality is explored. By gathering soil samples around the lake, I got to know its man-made ecosystems. Instead of imagining the landscape, I conducted field-based investigation. For me this miniature landscape scene was a portal to the real landscape. While walking along the Sloterplas, I harvested one sample of sand from the beach and one sample of peat soil from the Ruige Riet wetland. These samples represent the soil layers which were extracted from the lake, one after another. The Ruige Riet is a swamp that used to be here before the sand extraction of the 50’s. The sandy beach reveals to us an even older soil layer: sand, deposited thousands of years ago by the North Sea.

Both places tell us the story of this part of the Netherlands, connected to mining, ground-alterations and soil-shifting. The circumstances of Dutch, marshy landscape, dominated by water, and the absence of natural higher ground require the artificial rising or reclaiming land for urban development. Therefore, in this country’s history, the central theme is the creation of ‘manmade’ land. The Netherlands extracts around 100 million tones of sand from waterbodies annually. Such practices influence aquatic ecosystems, transforming naturally shallow waters into deep environments with declining biodiversity. When soil is displaced, so are all the creatures that live in it. So, what effects did soil-alterations have on the non-human life?

After closer examination of the peat sample at home I have found entangled with the chunks of soil decaying parts of plants, all in diverse deterioration state: leaves, bark of trees and small branches. The organic material that over time will become peat. This peat represents the layer of soil buried under the AUP neighbourhoods around Sloterplas. Mostly hidden, but still visible in the Ruige Riet. 

On top of peat there are layers of excavated sand. In the harvested samples of sand from the nearby beach by the Sloterplas, I have found out specimens that reveal contemporary ecological realities. In search of a soil sample, I walked along the shore. Shores can reveal what normally stays hidden under the water. So, what is washed ashore?

First, I found a quagga mussel. After the sand was extracted from the lake, an unexpected species emerged: vast fields of Quagga Mussel colonies. The altered ecology of a lake provided a stage for the invasive mussel. The species thrive due to over - nutrification of the lake. The mussel originates from the Black Sea. It traveled on the bottom of cargo ships. In 2015, the Sloterplas was covered with quagga mussels - 50% of the lake's surface. 2.5 billion individuals. The mussel has special powers: it filters water from the toxic blue-green algae, which Sloterplas has plenty of. Yet this purification came with a paradox. The mussel is an invasive species displacing native aquatic life, demonstrating how every human intervention leads to unpredictable non-human responses.

Along the shore of Sloterplas I have also found many sea shells, saltwater clams, atlantic oyster and sea snail. Among those, I found something which I have never seen before. This creature immediately captured my curiosity. I started asking everybody if they knew it or seen it before. Most of Dutch people did not, however international visitors of the museum did. It turned out to be a skeleton of the Eccentric Sand Dollar, animal species common to the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

How did the Sand Dollar end up on the beach by the Sloterplas? It didn't look like it belongs here. I started to speculate, imagining scenarios of the Sand Dollar’s story. Was it buried in the layers of sand under the lake, when this area of the Netherlands used to be under the sea? Did someone buy it online and leave it here? Was sand brought here from the North Sea, to strengthen the Sloterplas beach? And along with the sand, all the sea creatures dredged from the bottom of the sea?

What started as an investigation of soil layers of a mine, developed into a story of extraction, ecological disruption, and unintended entanglements between human and non-human actors. It revealed the ecological reality hidden beneath the modernist picturesque landscape of the Sloterplas. The tactile involvement with the lake opens up new perspectives to understand the urgent environmental challenges of our times.

Client: Van Eesteren Museum
Collaborators: Arne Hendriks, Jozef Zappe
Type: mobile theatre scene | exhibition
Location: Sloterplas, Amsterdam, Netherlands
With many thanks to Maurijn Rouwet and Luuk Schroeder